Buildings have large openings or doorways for accommodating vehicles, aircraft, watercraft and equipment which are moved into and out of the interior spaces in the buildings. Common types of conventional doors used to open and close the doorways are horizontally sliding doors and two piece center hinged doors known as bi-fold doors. An example of an overhead bi-fold door is disclosed by M. L. Schweiss in U.S. Pat. No. 6,866,080. The bi-doors have separate levers and mechanical latches operable to hold the doors in closed positions relative to the building structure.
C. E. McQueen et al in U.S. Pat. No. 4,637,446 discloses a latch member that engages a catch plate to lock a bi-fold door in an upright closed position. A spring connected to the latch member retains the latch member in locking engagement with the catch plate. A lift cable connected to the latch member extending to a door opening mechanism is used to release the latch member from the catch plate to allow the bi-fold door to swing to an open folded position. D. N. Keller in U.S. Pat. No. 5,343,923 discloses a latching assembly operable to hold a bi-fold door in an upright closed position. The latching assembly has an arm pivotally connected to the door frame that cooperates with a roller mounted on the adjacent door jamb. An actuation assembly driven by an electric motor operates to open and close the bi-fold door. The actuation assembly pulls a cable connected to the arm to pivot the arm into locking relationship with the roller on the door jamb to hold the bi-fold door in the upright closed position. The latching assembly operates with a single electric motor that performs the latching and unlatching operations automatically in cooperation with the opening and closing of the bi-fold door.